Lets talk hops

[howyoubrewin]

I would like to begin this post by proclaiming myself as a big hop head!
I am now coming up on 2 yrs as a homebrewer and in that time I have mainly done kit and extract brews adding grains and hops to experiment with flavour and aroma.
I have recently moved onto AG and plan to continue experimentation with different hop varieties as I just love the difference they make to a beer.
With my latest brew (a pale ale) I tried Wai-iti and Wakatu hops and was blown away with the aroma they give off and it got me to wondering what hops you like to use and if you have firm favourites that you use or any interesting hop pairings you have discovered?
Hops is such a vast and versatile category that I thought it would be fun for us all to pitch in with our opinions and give each other some hints and advice.

Cheers!

 

[Ashley]

I am firmly a fuggles and goldings fan, and as i've only been AG brewing a month i haven't experimented much.

i did use some citra hops for the first time on saturday though. only 5g in the last 5 mins for citrus aroma reasons but it gave a lovely fruity finish to the beer in the trial jar!!!

 

[howyoubrewin]

Citra is a favourite of mine too. Its a really versatile hop I find due to its high AA it is great as a bittering hop and like you say it gives off a really nice, citrussy aroma if used at the end of the boil or in dry hopping. Goldings is a hop I haven't used yet in a beer. I brewed up a chocolate vanilla porter a while back and used fuggles in it and i really liked the flavour and aroma I got.

 

[Mark1964]

Summit and mosaic smell is a knockout

 

[clibit]

I've been working my way through different hops from England, Europe, USA and NZ. Still loads I haven't tried and I'm not sure there is a bad hop out there but some favourites are:

Bobek: my favourite Styrian hop, lovely lemony, piney, floral aroma hop with low alpha. Some people find it too much, I've seen it described as washing up liquid! But I think it's fantastic, and that description is nonsense!

Aurora: Another good Styrian hop, not dissimilar to Bobek, with higher alpha.

First Gold: spicy with a hint of orange, lovely.

Northdown: Fruity - good in pale ales, and works well in dark ales too.

Goldings: classic.

Challenger: great all rounder, like a stronger version of goldings.

Brewer's Gold: Makes a nice single hop pale ale. Fruity, some say blackcurrant.

Green Bullet: Good bittering hop, but I like the aroma too. Try dry hopping with it.

Motueka: First samples of my latest brew are really promising. Saaz parent, with added citrus.

Nelson Sauvin: Winey. High alpha, and a unique aroma. Thornbridge Kipling hop.

Wakatu: Limey. Very pleasant. Another NZ hop bred from Saaz.

Amarillo: Beautiful hop.

Simcoe: great all round hop for bittering and aroma.

Centennial: Fantastic hop, use it a lot. Bred from Brewer's Gold, and I think you can tell.

Citra: wonderful aroma

Sterling: I really enjoyed the ale I made with this, will do one again. It's a Saaz, Cascade, Brewer's Gold hybrid.

Columbus, Apollo, Summit: three very high alpha hops that work great for both bittering and big American aroma.

 

[howyoubrewin]

I was going to buy some mosaic in my last order but the supplier was out of stock as was the summit. Great description of you hops there clibit. Your descriptions match what i have read when researching some of the hops you mentioned so thats great! I did read somewhere that Northdown is quite a subtle hop. Would you agree with that?

 

[clibit]

Not really. It's not in your face, but it has plenty of flavour. I suspect an American described it as subtle!

 

[howyoubrewin]

You might be right!

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

Amarillo

Target

Bramling Cross

all are great hops to use

 

[Ashley]

Citra is a favourite of mine too. Its a really versatile hop I find due to its high AA it is great as a bittering hop and like you say it gives off a really nice, citrussy aroma if used at the end of the boil or in dry hopping. Goldings is a hop I haven't used yet in a beer. I brewed up a chocolate vanilla porter a while back and used fuggles in it and i really liked the flavour and aroma I got.

before i moved to AG i only used fuggles in a tea bag for a brew, but some of my favourite beers only have fuggles, goldings, or both in them.

i am not a fan of IPA's and i worry that if i branch out too quickly with other types of hop i run the risk of getting an IPA hop taste and a beer i can't drink.

That said i'm going to try some of the recipes in graham wheelers book that do use other hop varieties so that should help me identify more the ones i like...

 

[howyoubrewin]

before i moved to AG i only used fuggles in a tea bag for a brew, but some of my favourite beers only have fuggles, goldings, or both in them.

i am not a fan of IPA's and i worry that if i branch out too quickly with other types of hop i run the risk of getting an IPA hop taste and a beer i can't drink.

That said i'm going to try some of the recipes in graham wheelers book that do use other hop varieties so that should help me identify more the ones i like...

I get that completely. It was only after I started to homebrew that I developed a taste for different types of beer and began to appreciate the flavours and aromas of hoppier variety beers.

 

[clibit]

If you use English hops you won't get any extreme hop tastes. Most of the German hops too. And other European hops. There are also some US and NZ hops that don't have a strong IPA kind of flavour - you just need to avoid certain hops like Cascade, Simcoe, Apollo, Summit, Columbus etc.

 

[howyoubrewin]

Or in my case get a hold of them! I love the style of beer those particular hops give you.

 

[Ashley]

If you use English hops you won't get any extreme hop tastes. Most of the German hops too. And other European hops. There are also some US and NZ hops that don't have a strong IPA kind of flavour - you just need to avoid certain hops like Cascade, Simcoe, Apollo, Summit, Columbus etc.

so, challenger, northern brewer and target are o.k.?

 

[brewpirate]

1 part Chinook, 2 parts Amarillo, 2 parts citra.

Love this combo.

I am a big fan of cascade, centennial, amarillo, warrior, columbus, EKG and sterling.



When dry hopping reinforce your boil additions and get a good hop stand to pack in that aroma.

 

[clibit]

Challenger and northern brewer will be fine. I've never used Target, but it is a bittering hop really, apparently a bit harsh for flavour and aroma. It's used to bitter a lot of typical English ales.

Hops you could use: First Gold, Northdown, Progress, Bramling Cross, Challenger, Boadicea, Styrian Goldings, Brewers Gold, Bobek, Aurora, Saaz, Tettnang, Hallertau, Willamette, Mount Hood, Liberty, Sterling, Crystal.

Plenty more but these are all good widely used hops that have good flavour/aroma and won't overpower.

 

[Ashley]

Awesome cheers mate 😃

 

[MyQul]

@Ashley

I also have GW book and am starting to work my way through the Milds in that section of the book.

If your planning to make a lot of the GW receipes you don't actually need that many types of hops to do most of them: Fuggles and EKG certainly. Challenger, Progress, Styrian Golding, Whitbread Goldings and Target - you'll notice are used for most of the receipes. You'll also notice many receipes say simply Goldings. I've taken this to mean you can use any of the Goldings varieties.

One other tip about GW's book. Some receipes say to use white sugar. I wouldn't do this and just add more pale malt. I made the Directors receipe following the receipe exactly (adding white sugar like it says) and using a high attenuating yeast and It came out super dry.

 

[clibit]

Use a low attenuating yeast. ;-)

 

[MyQul]

:-D

At the time I was using notty for everything and wasn't aware that this would happen